Free Downloads Heaven: Poems
One of The Washington Post's Best Poetry Collections of 2015One of NPR's Best Books of 2015One of Flavorwire's Best Poetry Books of 2015Long-listed for the National Book Award in poetryLong-listed for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award"Who the hell's heaven is this?" Rowan Ricardo Phillips offers many answers, and none at all, in Heaven, the piercing and revelatory encore to his award-winning debut, The Ground. Swerving elegantly from humor to heartbreak, from Colorado to Florida, from Dante's Paradise to Homer's Iliad, from knowledge to ignorance to awe, Phillips turns his gaze upward and outward, probing and upending notions of the beyond. "Feeling, real feeling / with all its faulty / Architecture, is / Beyond a god's touch"―but it does not elude Phillips. Meditating on feverish boyhood, on two paintings by Chuck Close, on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, on a dead rooster by the side of the road in Ohio, on an elk grazing outside his window, his language remains eternally intoxicating, full of play, pathos, and surprise. "The end," he writes, "like / All I've ever told you, is uncertain." Or, elsewhere: "The only way then to know a truth / Is to squint in its direction and poke." Phillips―who received a 2013 Whiting Writers' Award as well as the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award―may not be certain, but as he squints and pokes in the direction of truth, his power of perception and elegance of expression create a place where beauty and truth come together and drift apart like a planet orbiting its star. The result is a book whose lush and wounding beauty will leave its mark on readers long after they've turned the last page.
Paperback: 80 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (April 19, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374536228
ISBN-13: 978-0374536220
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.2 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #179,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #80 in Books > Literature & Fiction > African American > Poetry #729 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > United States #28394 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States
Heaven is a collection of poems that satisfy on many levels. Phillips writes with authority, tightly controlling his meter while letting powerful metaphors drive his poems forward--I enjoyed almost all of the poems in this collection, which I read for a class about Imagery and Metaphor with poet Julie Sheehan. Very well worth the money, and I hope to see more of Phillips' musings.
Phillips dances in and out of the western tradition; into and away from form; and he circles constantly back to the material ache for divinity and transformation that is a condition of the flesh. His authority is in his light touch-- and if, from time to time, his self-evident intellect or taste for virtuosity stiffens a poem into artifact, major pieces like 'Beatitudes of Malibu' ground these explorations always in the aching, seeking self.
New young poet. worth reading.
As a professor, Phillips lacks soul, so it's impossible for me to take anything he does seriously. He's a careerist, not a poet. Whitman would vomit if he had to listen to this guy.
Heaven is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations: Ten True Stories of Experiencing Heaven Flight to Heaven: A Plane Crash...A Lone Survivor...A Journey to Heaven--and Back Heaven's Gate: The Remarkable Journey of One Man Who Finds out If Heaven Is for Real When Heaven Weeps: The Heaven Trilogy, Book 2 What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth To Heaven and Back: A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again: A True Story Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back The Glory of Heaven (Second Edition): The Truth about Heaven, Angels, and Eternal Life Heaven is for Real for Kids: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back Heaven: Poems Cold Mountain Poems: Zen Poems of Han Shan, Shih Te, and Wang Fan-chih (Shambhala Library) Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals Visions of Heaven: The Dome in European Architecture The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: A Facsimile in Full Color (Dover Fine Art, History of Art) Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain The Earth as Art: Views from Heaven Dirk Quigby's Guide to the Afterlife: All You Need to Know to Choose the Right Heaven, Plus a Five-Star Rating System for Music, Food, Drink, & Accommodations
